Downtown condo owners hope the worst is over

San Diego downtown residents have had to put up with a lot in the past seven years.

Plunging condominium values. A rise in the number of homeless, particularly in the East Village. The slow pace to add key amenities, such as fire stations and parks.

And the Padres moving Adrian Gonzalez to the Red Sox.

Given all that, it could make Clairemont seem like heaven. At least there, you get a yard.

The dream of an urban paradise might seem more like a nightmare, particularly if one bought at the peak of the market in 2004, when the median resale price of a condominium was $675,000. At the end of 2010, it stood at $335,000.

After years of such disheartening trends for the city’s core, some hope the worst is over. Condominium prices still are falling, but not free-falling. The overall drop from 2009 to 2010 was 2.9 percent.

With prices down, units are selling more briskly — that number is up 8.4 percent over the same period.

Sandra Simmons, who’s lived downtown since 1991, is still a little leery.

“There still might be a little bit of pain to feel,” she said. “I’m not ready to exhale.”

She’s seen small businesses close, which concerns her. Near Petco Park, a coffee shop, a dry-cleaners and an Italian ice-cream shop all are shuttered. Many other storefronts are empty.

Others are more bullish. Gary Smith, president of the Downtown Residents Group, feels that the glut of condominiums is dwindling and the area is stabilizing.

One help was the conversion of Vantage Pointe to apartments, Smith said. Vantage Pointe, sporting 679 units, was the biggest condominium development ever planned for downtown.

It failed because the market couldn’t absorb that kind of supply, and banks had hit the brakes on lending due to the nation’s fiscal crisis. Others criticized the building concept, saying the units were too small.

People hardest hit downtown were speculators gobbling up properties in hopes of flipping them for profit, Smith said. The subsequent foreclosures and short-sales, which continue, only added to the problem.

Jim Abbott, managing partner of ARG Abbott Realty Group, is cautious. Condominiums priced over $700,000 are moving slowly, he said. Given the collapse, people don’t have a lot of confidence in making such a big investment.

He sees downtown as a vibrant and eclectic place to live, with one caveat: “There’s still real pain happening in the housing market.”

One concern is that cash-rich investors are swooping in to pick off deals. It’s harder to get traditional loans, which hurts new buyers. That means some buildings are not being occupied by enough unit owners. Buildings suffer, Abbott said, when they’re comprised of a large number of absentee owners.

Claudette Cooper, from Northern California, remains optimistic about downtown even though she has lost as much as $100,000 in value since purchasing her Icon condominium in 2005.

“I thought I got a fantastic deal,” she said.

And she’s a real estate agent.

As president of the Icon’s homeowner’s association, she’s convinced that downtown is set for a resurgence. For one thing, it will take several years for any new developments to get up and running given the bureaucratic hurdles such projects face.

“And I don’t think the demand to live here will ever go away,” she said.

Annie Eichman moved to a townhouse in Little Italy in 2004. She doesn’t worry about her home’s depreciation.

“This is our home,” she said. “You’ll have to carry us out.”

She and her husband had been living in a suburb of Detroit and wanted to downsize. Her biggest concern since moving to San Diego is the growing number of homeless.

Daily, they rifle through her garbage cans, she said. But she’s not simply complaining about the situation. She’s president of the Little Italy Residents’ Association and is involved in an effort to get them into housing.

“That’s my big cause right now.”

For Phil and Joan Mendelson, downtown San Diego has been home to them for all of four weeks. They moved here from New York City and they couldn’t get over the prices...

How inexpensive they were.

They bought a 27th floor condominium in the Mark. They wouldn’t give the price they paid, but a similar one in New York would cost $3 or $4 million. They have bay and city views. And parking. And they can’t believe it.